Picking up where I last left off in my blog entries, I had just recently moved to a new apartment and during my first poker session in the new place I noticed that things were lagging a bit when I was playing a few tables. At first I figured that the internet connection might be a little choppy but soon figured the problem must be something else after noticing that any window that I dragged across the screen left a bit of a "trail" (when or when not connected to the net). This problem didn't really make any sense to me since I have never experienced this before on my desktop and things were working perfectly when it was stationed at home just days before. I hoped that something didn't get damaged during the move and after many hours of googling for similar problems (and solutions) and after resetting, readjusting and replugging every connection between my monitor and my tower, I chose to reinstall Windows Vista.
Reinstalling Vista was a tough decision to make because even though I don't have any valuable data on my computer, the reset would mean that I would lose my player notes, HEM records etc. Actually, I'm almost sure that there would be a way to save all of that before resetting but my HEM records are way inaccurate anyways and it's probably for the best to get more current HUD stats on my opponents. The main drag is to actually go through and re-make my HUD, choose what theme I want on Stars along with all of my preferences etc. Also, the lag wasn't completely hindering my ability to play online poker, though it was incredibly tilting and almost impossible to play more than 12 tables at a time.
Anyways, I went ahead and reinstalled Vista only to learn that my computer was missing the proper drivers to allow it to establish an internet network connection. The computer came with a CD with like half of the drivers on it that I need but that's it (unless I lost another CD or something). I remembered I had this same exact problem last summer when I also reinstalled Vista after seeing the "blue screen of death" and had the problem solved by phoning Dell support, downloading the proper drivers on my laptop and then transferring them to my XPS via flash drive and installed the drivers manually (If this sounds complicated to anyone or you have no idea what I'm talking about, well that would be me before last summer...even though this is all quite simple computer stuff my knowledge before encountering any of these problems was slim to none-If you ever want to learn about how computers work, just go ahead and break yours first). So, there I was with my plan in place...I booted up the laptop, went to the Dell site, found the appropriate network drivers, downloaded them to my flash drive, loaded the flash drive into the broken tower, installed the new drivers, and bam, nothing, still no Internet!
At this point, I was pretty desperate and decided to call up Dell support knowing that they'd charge me around $130 for the phone call...but what else could I do? It turns out that it was a HUGE waste of time...I stayed on the phone for 3 hours with some guy that told me to do exactly what I had already tried lol. He was doing all he could to not give me a refund for the call, saying his supervisor would call me back in 2 days and fix it. I told him I couldn't wait 2 days and that he might not be able to do anything anyways and was refunded in the end.
The next day I made a trip to Futureshop (oh yeah, I also figured the lag could be caused by my ageing mouse or weak wireless connection so I made a trip to the store and bought a new mouse/ethernet cable before reinstalling Vista) to return my mouse and cable. I briefly explained my situation to the guy at customer service and he told me about some program that can search your computer and tell you exactly what drivers that you're missing. Even though I had already confirmed with Dell support that I was in fact installing the proper/only network drivers I figured it couldn't hurt to try. As it turns out, this program seeked out the perfect drivers for my computer and I googled/transferred the drivers over from my laptop to desktop and voila, back in business! This whole ordeal took 2-4 days when combined with other distractions and I'm happy to be computer problem free...at least for now (also, the lag issue was indeed solved by reinstalling Vista)!
Ever since I've been back online, I've only managed to crank out about 7K VPP's so far this month and it's been really lame. Not running good, not running awful, the most tilting thing has been that I'm having a near impossible time running more than 12-18 tables at a time. I'm not even looking for great tables, just satisfactory ones (meaning any table that isn't ALL regs). Things always dry up a bit towards the end of the year with a lot of regs grinding out their year end quotas and this year appears to be no different. I also haven't really played during peak times thus far, so hopefully that helps. As for my results thus far, well it's obviously a small sample size and I'm pretty much dead even. It seems as though I can't really get any sort of streak going...I'll win one big pot and then lose another:
Poker Stars $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players
SB: $229.35
BB: $369.55
UTG: $821.60
UTG+1: $214.10
Hero (MP): $472.70
CO: $501.20
BTN: $400.00
Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is MP with A
A
2 folds, Hero raises to $6, 3 folds, BB raises to $24, Hero raises to $58, BB raises to $92, Hero raises to $472.30, BB calls $277.55 all in
Flop: ($740.10) 2
K 3
(2 players - 1 is all in)Turn: ($740.10) 9
(2 players - 1 is all in)River: ($740.10) 5
(2 players - 1 is all in)Final Pot: $740.10
BB shows K
KHero shows A
ABB wins $739.10
(Rake: $0.60)
Standard bad beat from a player that couldn't fold KK nearly 200bb's deep in a spot where I'm probably never 6bet jamming anything but AA lol-should be an pretty easy laydown given our positions and no history.
Poker Stars $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players
Hero (BB): $388.00
UTG: $352.80
UTG+1: $52.00
MP: $280.35
CO: $200.00
BTN: $205.75
SB: $92.50
Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with T
AUTG raises to $6, 5 folds, Hero calls $4
Flop: ($13.00) 7
Q 5 (2 players)Hero checks, UTG bets $8.00, Hero raises to $26, UTG calls $18
Turn: ($65.00) 4
(2 players)Hero bets $40.00, UTG calls $40
River: ($145.00) 8
(2 players)Hero bets $85.00, UTG raises to $240, Hero raises to $316, UTG calls $40.80 all in
Final Pot: $706.60
Hero shows T
AUTG shows K
QHero wins $703.60
(Rake: $3.00)
Luckily there are some regs willing to donate to my cause in spots like these where they're almost never getting called by worse when shoving the river. I also probably c/c or c/f a set on this river a lot of the time.
Anywhooo, games are not ideal at the moment so it's going to be a tough end of the month so hopefully we catch some cards!
gl at the tables!
alright mate
ReplyDeletei know what you mean about computers, you only learn by doing it. I have had the dreaded blue screen a couple of times now over the years and had to re-install everything.
what was the program you used to find your missing drivers?? (you got a link for it)
another Rossi top tip: if you dont want to keep having to re-format your computer, STOP watching internet porn for hours on end!!!!
Or use a reliable porn provider
ReplyDeleteI heard that windows 7 is better than Vista
Windows xp was great, vista worst..and windows 7 better then vista!!
ReplyDeletedriver laserjet p1102
Hey Frosty012,
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm going for sne (currently at 800kvpp)I can't decide whether or not I'm going for it again next year because I'm suffering too much from the grind (even tho I win at the tables)But it seems a massive waste not to go for sne a second year when you get a lot more
rackback.
Anyway I just wanted to ask what were your reasons for giving up on your painfully obtained sne statut ? I'm sure I can find the answer somewhere in your blog but sorry I'm too lazy :)
Hahaha, always love the Rossi comments (especially when they're accompanied with a ROSSI TIP).
ReplyDeleteThe program that I was told to use is called "Everest Home," I believe...but searching for that program actually led me to another one (I forget the name...I did find Everest Home but I don't think I used it properly), although I think there are a ton of similar programs out there that you can use for free. I mean, as long as you have an active internet connection you should be able to update all of the drivers automatically I think.
Lol, this problem was almost definitely not pr0n related if you can believe that. Also, where's the fun of watching porn if you don't have a chance of catching a virus? Personally, I find it much more exciting this way.
Yeah I've heard 7 is wayyyy better than Vista but whatever, it costs $200!!
Hey Anonymous,
First off, nice job man! 800K-you should be able to finish easily at this point.
I feel you, getting a bit burnt out at the years end was basically why I didn't go for SNE this year. I mean there were many reasons but it all started with me taking almost all of January off to relax and party a bit. There's no doubt in my mind that it's not exactly a healthy feat to achieve SNE-the headaches, strain on eyes, mental fatigue etc. will hit your hard in the last few months (well, for me especially, considering that my time management was quite poor all year and I had to do a lot of last mintue cramming)!
So there are kinda 2 ways to look at it once you get SNE. One, as you stated, it could seem a bit of a waste not to repeat and reap the rewards from a higher VPP multiplier and likely earn more money than you did this year. Or two, you could play less hours and earn the same as you did this year by leaning on the higher VPP multiplier as a crutch.
For me, wanting to stay healthy was certainly a big factor into how many hours that I've played this year but I also wanted to scrap the small-stakes games and try to get better at midstakes by playing less on auto-pilot. I'm not sure if that's really happened, but that's kinda irrelevant. Also (and this is kinda unique to my own situation), my contract with Stars to be on Team Online also made it easy for me to play less and still rack in about the same amount of dough as I earned last year. Everything just worked out so nicely by having 50K VPP's as a goal each month...it would be enough for a 4K bonus and I would still be playing enough to earn my contract and be putting in enough hands to win somewhat consistently at the tables.
I'm also kinda looking at the bigger picture as well. I think that one year on one year off is a much more manageable approach for doing what I do.
With all that said, I'm pretty confident that I WILL be getting SNE again next year, barring whatever unpredictable poker events happen in the near future.
"Yeah I've heard 7 is wayyyy better than Vista but whatever, it costs $200!!"
ReplyDeleteIts worth it frosty! How long did you spend fixing your vista install? im sure that cost you more than $200?!!? nit off the tables aswell ;)
GL at the felt...
What're you doing on NL100?
ReplyDelete